villagelogs | 065-071 » assign to oblivion / part iii

065-071 » assign to oblivion / part iii

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Mathias Township proper
WHEN: Days 065-071
WHAT: The residents of Mathias reunite under unnerving conditions.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross "Outside"

DAY 065-071
ASSIGN TO OBLIVION
“No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes
place in the interim, there are some things we can never
assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away.”
— Haruki Murakami

Only two days have passed since the town was fractured, leaving residents cut off from those they'd come to know and even care for. A mere two days of wandering the new streets, uncovering more secrets that continue to make little sense of this strange place. Two days with sunrises, sunsets, and nights that seem like any other.

And yet.

When residents wake on this third day, they will find that much has changed. All around them, wherever they may be, there are signs that time has passed without them. Dust covers everything, indoors and out, even areas that were spotlessly clean seemingly hours ago. The residents themselves are covered as well, dust clinging to their hair, skin, and clothing—

Clothing that they may not have been wearing when they went to sleep. Each resident, regardless of the state they were in previously, is now clad in a pair of white pajamas, with long pants and button-up shirts. Those who thoroughly explored Baneberry Hall will easily recognize these articles as identical to those well-stocked in the decaying great house. On top of this, the clothes they wore from home have disappeared, along with anything else they may have brought with them when they arrived or items from home that have been found within the borders of Mathias.

There is no sign that anyone has entered their place of shelter, nor is there any sign of what may have been done with these items or how they came to be wearing these clothes. The dust all around them is undisturbed, almost as if they had been sleeping there for quite some time, though it seems impossible for such a thing to have occurred naturally.

THE NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake up on the lawn of Town Hall, at the center of the little town square. They, too, are bereft of any items from home and clothed in the identical white pajamas. There are shops all around them, with houses just beyond, and at first glance, everything seems almost picturesque. Except for the silence that is at times so complete as to be maddening... Welcome to Mathias.

SUMMERTIME
— When summer arrives, so too does an outdoor stand in front of the General Store. Sporting a handpainted sign proclaiming Whateley Farm, the stand is overflowing with a variety of produce: berries, plums, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, green beans, leeks, onions, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, and garlic bulbs. These do not replace the produce offerings normally found inside the market, but they do behave strangely. The stand replenishes sporadically, sometimes every other day or every five days. There is no discernible pattern to when it replenishes, nor is there any sign of how it came to be there at all.

— With the now-complete reverse change of season, much of the autumn debris has cleared from around town. Only a few stray leaves and fallen branches remain, their crisp colors at odds with the warm summer days. The forest has also cleared of much of the fall detritus, making it easier to both follow the paths and potentially spy things that might be out of the ordinary.

CONDITIONS UPDATE
— THE WEATHER Summer has arrived in Mathias, bringing with it warm days that average 70°F and comfortably cool nights. The skies are clear throughout the week save for Day 68 when a light rain falls from a grey sky throughout the day.

— THE FOG has maintained its new boundaries.
— Residents may now wander the southern stretch of the forest surrounding Mathias Township — it is possible to leave the paths but potentially unwise to do so.
— The fog has also retreated from the western section of town entirely.
— Access to the northern section of the forest is still blocked beginning a few dozen yards past the treeline; this section of fog will urge residents to stay huddled within the town proper by inducing a physical reaction of panic and fear.

— DISAPPEARANCES AND DEATHS continue! Max Guevara and Liz Brundy have disappeared, and now that everyone is back together, residents will notice that Yennefer, Number Five, and Tony Stark have also vanished.

— ALCOHOL supplies have run dry, save for any dregs that have been squirreled away by individual residents. Moonshine can still be acquired by those in desperate need.

OOC NOTES
— UPDATES Don't forget to report updates as they come up! Changes to locations (like toppling a few bookshelves in the library), big plots you have coming up that will affect the game (parties, major property destruction, etc), or exciting discoveries that may tie into the game's mythology (even the things provided by the mod) are very helpful to have in one place so relevant page updates can be made. IC events are also helpful to know about in advance so they can be included in the log write-ups.

— MOD STATUS My non-RP life is busy and chaotic and I continue to ask for your forgiveness and understanding as game things continue to be slower, as I cannot promise timely mod responses beyond weekends and even that is not wholly guaranteed.

— ITEMS FROM HOME All items from home that characters would normally possess have vanished for this log and will return in the next. This includes clothing and possessions they had when they arrived in Mathias, items that were found in the rain, and items that were found in Baneberry Hall and removed from the property. Items from home that were left behind by other characters no longer in the game have also vanished. (All other items and clothing still remain, it is only items from characters' homes that have disappeared.)

— BANEBERRY ITEMS The items from home that were not removed from Baneberry Hall in the last log have vanished from the property. These items will not reappear in the next log. (Please be sure to comment in the appropriate spot on those logs about the state of your character's item for inventory purposes, ie whether they were removed from the property or left behind.)

— ACTIVITY CHECK Beginning with June's AC (posted at the start of July), all tags that consist of only dialogue will count as 0.5 points, not just those that occur in an inbox thread — this applies to both AC and AP totals. This adjustment is an extension of what has been in place since the start of the game: that all dialogue-only inbox tags counted for a half-point. Since such tags have occurred regularly in log threads as well, the half-point status is simply being extended to all tags regardless of location in order to be fairer in point distribution. (Examples will be provided in the AC post to assist with proper counting.)

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There's a tired smile on his lips as Malcolm tries to square up a bit, sound tough. He hasn't maybe been sleeping all that well on his own, with way too much weighing on his goddamn head.

"Sorry, sorry. Just needed a little time. Kind of didn't want to get my ass kicked either." And he's not entirely sure if Doc's not one step away from it.

"Like I said, not everyone in the house is all that cool with what they saw." He pauses, a little more concern in his eyes. After that blowup of Neal's? He can't help but ask--

"You doing okay, Malcolm?"

"Oh, I'm..." He pauses and looks up at Negan sidelong. "Why, what have you heard?" he clarifies.

"Just asking." Negan's never really tactful, but he also doesn't want to get Neal into a shit ton of trouble by going on about their last meet up.

"C'mon, let's head inside at least."

Malcolm nods gamely, following him into the house.

“Did Neal stay with you last night?” he asks. “He said he might and I haven’t seen him. He didn’t come home.” And Negan didn’t come home. And Raylan didn’t come home. And he and Doc still slept in the garage.

Well. Doc slept at some point, he thinks.

"Yeah..." He scrubs a hand over his face once they're inside, motioning for Malcolm to sit. Neal was definitely here. That was a hell of an adventure that he's also not sure he wants to get into.

"You want anything while I'm up?"

Malcolm perches just on the very edge of the couch like a baby bird and shakes his head at the offer.

“…Do… do you think you will come home? When everyone cools down?”

Negan's quiet for a moment, debating it over in his head for a bit. "You're not gonna get rid of me that easy, Malcolm. Just--"

He huffs out a sigh, making a sweeping motion with his hand. "Shit's been tough lately. Didn't think the whole house would walk down memory lane with me, you know? Hell, didn't think I'd have to deal with it either."

The nightmares fucking suck lately, more vivid now that the memory's been relieved in excruciating detail. "I don't know if Doc's gonna cool down, if I'm honest with you."

“I can talk to him. Do you want me to talk to him?” he asked, leaning forward.

"And what are you gonna say, Malcolm? What makes the shit you all saw magically okay?" Especially to a guy like Doc.

"He doesn't think I'm being sincere... thinks I've fucking-- I don't know, deceived you guys, put on an act. I don't know. Point is, he doesn't think I'm a safe guy. He's not wrong."

“He’s told me some stories. People he’s killed for no good reason. You’ve all been pretty keen to impress on me how bad and dangerous you are. He’s made some mistakes. He’s done bad things. I’m sure he can understand, now that he’s a little removed from the moment,” Malcolm explains.

"It wasn't the killing people, Malcolm. It was the enjoyment, the show of it..." He could probably get the murder.

“You’re not a sadist,” Malcolm informed him sternly.

"Does it matter, Malcolm? You've got your opinions, Doc's got his." And Negan isn't sure of much beyond the fact that he doesn't like the way the regret and guilt has seeped in even heavier. There's not a damn thing he can do to distract or ease from it.

"I'll come back. I promise, okay? I know you like a little Negan time and I wouldn't dream of denying it." He gives a smile to show he's joking. At least trying to.

Malcolm looks at him skeptically. “If you don’t feel like you can live at home, will you at least find somewhere to stay on Philips Drive?”

"I'll stay close, if I decide I need to move out, but... everything is still so fresh, Malcolm. We need to let the dust settle." He shrugs his shoulders.

"Doesn't feel like anybody's in a good space at the moment."

Malcolm’s eyes fall to the floor between them, his own heartache fresh from the previous night, followed by the way Neal left and then didn’t come back.

He said he’d come back; he said he just needed air.

He nods tightly.

“I don’t want them to succeed in driving us all apart.”

"I know, Malcolm. Just-- sometimes people need some time apart, I guess. Especially when a lot of rough shit happens." He idly shifts, awkward for a moment before he goes to take a seat.

"You never answered how you were doing. Sounds like-- you've had some problems, going by Neal."

Malcolm’s eyes move to Negan’s in surprise. Neal told him. They shift down between them again as he shrugs, pushing a hand through his hair.

“In the grand scheme of things, I guess I don’t have a lot to complain about. I had a… bit of a situation with Raylan but… we’ve resolved it.” More or less. He’s still stung. His heart still aches. But apparently his private affairs with Raylan, that he kept a secret for Raylan, have affected everyone around them. He’s still loathe to explain the nature of their ‘situation’. It still feels like a betrayal for him to be the one to say it. “I think it’s going to be…” he wants to say ‘fine’ but it won’t come out. He shakes his head with have a shrug. “It’ll work out.”

Negan watches Malcolm quietly, eyes narrowing on him. "Look-- I hope it does. Sometimes you gotta have shit blow up in your face, or nearly lose it, to realize you really need to change."

He had to, at least. It wasn't until Lucille was sick that he realized what an absolute asshole he was.

"But that said, you need anyone to deal out a punch or two, you know you got me, right?" He adds, flashing a grin to show he's joking. Mostly. It feels just as weird for him to be in on any of this really, but Neal told him what was up and he can't just pretend he doesn't know.

Malcolm huffs out a grateful laugh.

“I do know that, but please don’t punch Raylan. He never wanted to hurt me; he just got… caught up.”

"I know a thing or two about that," he answers after a moment. "Did that plenty back home-- and it wasn't... I didn't set out to hurt my wife. Fuck it, I loved her. I was just a dumbass who followed his dick more than his head. It didn't make it right and I sure as hell didn't deserve her. But I get it."

And he gets why Neal's upset about it. Hell, he wasn't too happy when he got the story either, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get it. "But I do know when she gave me a second chance, I cut that shit out."

“He didn’t promise me anything,” Malcolm tells him quietly. “This place has no future to offer. But he does love me. Maybe that has to be enough here,” he says.

"Maybe," Negan concedes. "I'm not one to talk about love, offer any kind of advice about that shit... or hell, I can, but I was a goddamn mess at it. Sure Lucille would've left me if it hadn't been the end of the goddamn world. In the end, I guess she did choose to leave me anyway. But as long as you're at least mostly happy and everybody's consenting to shit, then... that's the thing that matters. God knows that's the rule I go by back home."

Malcolm nods. "I'm happy when I'm with him," he says. And when he's around and when he knows where he is and when he thinks about him. "I suppose it... doesn't really matter what he's doing when I'm not." Or who.

"I guess as long as the happy moments outweigh the shitty ones, right?" He gives a shrug.

"And if you can live with the uncertainty of what happens when he's not there with you."

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abrightboy - 2021-07-19 14:12 (UTC) - Expand

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